User manual

Table Of Contents

Bar repeats

Bar repeats indicate that the musical material in preceding bars must be repeated exactly, but

without notating that material again. Bar repeats can comprise groups of one, two, or four bars.

For example, a one-bar repeat indicates that the material in one bar is repeated, meaning every

bar in the region repeats the same material. A four-bar repeat indicates that the material in the

previous four bars is repeated.

One-bar repeat region Two-bar repeat region

Four-bar repeat region

This notational short-hand can make repetitive music easier to read, as performers must only

read the repeated phrase once and then simply count how many times they repeat it. Bar

repeats can also save horizontal space, as bar repeat symbols are usually narrower than the

equivalent fully written-out bars.

In Dorico SE, bar repeat regions are used to display bar repeats, meaning as many bar repeat

symbols as necessary to ll the region are shown automatically.

In Write mode, each region has a handle at the start and end, which you can use to move and

lengthen/shorten regions.

By default, bar repeat regions are highlighted with a colored background. As you zoom out, the

highlights become more opaque, which is especially useful when viewing full score layouts in

galley view. These highlights are considered annotations, are not printed by default, and you can

hide and show them.

You can also show adjacent bar repeat regions, for example, if you want to use a two-bar repeat

in the rst iteration of a phrase, and then a four-bar repeat to indicate the whole phrase is

repeated. When two different bar repeat regions are adjacent, they alternate highlight colors to

ensure the separate regions are always

identiable.

Phrase containing two adjacent bar repeat regions